The Tarbabys Blog

Switching From Red Meats to Plants Increases Life Expectancy, Study Finds

Olivia Rosane – February 11, 2022

Vegetables typically found in the Mediterranean diet. fcafotodigital / E+ / Getty Images

Eating a more plant-based diet isn’t just good for the planet. It could add years to your life as well. 

A new study published in PLOS Medicine on Tuesday found that opting for plants, fish, legumes and whole grains over red meats and processed foods could extend a human lifespan by up to 13 years. 

“A sustained dietary change may give substantial health gains for people of all ages both for optimized and feasible changes,” the study authors wrote. 

Scientists and health experts have long sung the praises of a Mediterranean diet. That’s a diet based on moderate amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, olive oil, seafood, poultry and dairy. It’s been rated the best diet over all five years in a row by U.S. News and World Report, and one study suggests it may even help protect against the impacts of certain types of air pollution. 

To compare the impacts of choosing a typical “Western” diet to an “optimized” diet that closely resembles the Mediterranean diet, the Norway-based research team relied on computer models, CNN explained. They calculated what would happen if a man or woman from the U.S. began eating different diets at different points during their lives, according to the study.

A woman who began eating the optimized diet at 20 could extend her lifespan by slightly more than 10 years, while a man who began at the same time could extend his by 13 years, CNN reported. However, there were still benefits to eating healthier later in life. A man who began the optimized diet at 60 could add nearly nine years to his life and a woman, eight. Both men and women could add around 3.5 years to their lives by starting the optimized diet at 80.

The researchers have now turned their findings into a public tool called Food4HealthyLife, that anyone can use to calculate how dietary changes would impact their life expectancy.  

Outside researchers said the findings were not necessarily surprising. 

“The notion that improving diet quality would reduce the risk of chronic disease and premature death is long established, and it only stands to reason that less chronic disease and premature death means more life expectancy,” Dr. David Katz, a nutrition and lifestyle medicine expert who was not involved in the research, told CNN. 

However, some people find the idea of shifting to a mostly plant-based diet intimidating. The researchers also calculated the impacts of a middle option they called a “feasibility approach.” For a woman, adapting a feasibility approach diet from the age of 20 could improve her life expectancy by 6.2 years, while a man making the same change at the same time could add 7.3 years to his life.  

This suggests that eating more plants is always a positive choice, even if you can’t entirely change your diet.

“I think when people hear plant-based diet or they hear a definition they get very intimidated. This does not have to be an all-in thing,” ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, who was not part of the research, told Good Morning America Wednesday, as Yahoo News reported. “You can make small changes with, let’s say, a meatless Monday or just one meal of every day.”

In addition to the health gains, there are also environmental reasons for opting for plants over red meat. A 2018 study found that shifting to a vegan diet is probably the single biggest thing an individual can do to reduce their contribution to the climate crisis, land use and water use, nutrient pollution and other human activities. 

HuffPost – Politics

Canadian Judge Blocks Money For Truckers From U.S. Right-Wing Christian Fundraising Site

GiveSendGo claims Canada has no jurisdiction across borders, even as it funds a protest in another country.

By Mary Papenfuss – February 12, 2022

A Canadian judge has issued an injunction blocking money for the anti-vaccine trucker protesters in Ottawa collected by the right-wing U.S. Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo.

The Ontario government petitioned for the order from Canada’s Superior Court of Justice, which was issued Thursday. It prohibits “any and all parties with possession or control over these donations” from distributing the money.

The criminal code allows for such an action against any “offense-related property,” meaning assets collected as part of or supporting illegal activity, according to a spokesperson for Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

GiveSendGo defiantly declared in response to the court order: “Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo.”

GiveSendGo has raised some $9 million for the “Freedom Convoy” and via the site’s “Adopt a Trucker” program. The site also encourages “prayers” for the controversial trucker “warriors” in their third week of protesting against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 precautions at the U.S.-Canadian border.

GiveSendGo has raised money for several far-right causes, and even for violent organizations, including the extremist Proud Boys, which is classified as a “terrorist” organization in Canada.

Trucker protest leader Chris Barber ominously threatened that the judge’s order would “blow up in their faces” in an interview with The Ottawa Citizen.

“Bring it on … we are not going anywhere,” added Barber, who insisted there’s money coming in from other sources.

The order was part of a multi-pronged attack this week against the truckers who have paralyzed downtown Ottawa and blocked a key bridge into the U.S.

A province-wide state of emergency was declared Wednesday and police on Saturday began enforcing an injunction against the truckers’ blockade of the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor, Ontario into Detroit. The blockade choked off an already challenged supply chain to American automakers. A report estimated that U.S. workers and businesses have already lost some $51 million in damaged commerce and wages due to the action.

By late Saturday blockade trucks on the bridge were gone in the wake of the police action, though protesters on foot remained, The Detroit Free Press reported.

The anti-precautions protest began more than two weeks ago as hundreds of truckers, many driving massive semi-trucks, descended on downtown Ottawa, honking ear-piercing air horns, paralyzing traffic and shutting down stores and offices. They’ve been accused of harassment, even assault, and of ripping masks off the faces of area residents.

Yet the truckers were immediately hailed as heroes by right-wing American lawmakers and others, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Florida’s GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, Elon Musk, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Donald Trump and son Donald Trump Jr. 

GoFundMe earlier this month shut down a site that had raised close to $10 million for the truckers after Ottawa police reached out to the company to complain of illegal activity by the truckers. That’s when GiveSendGo stepped in.

Members of Ontario’s House of Commons this week heard testimony from deputy directors of Canada’s financial intelligence operation revealing that it doesn’t directly track sources of money pouring into crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe or GiveSendGo GlobalNews reported.

Representatives from GoFundMe will reportedly testify before a committee next week about what measures it has taken to prevent being a funding conduit to extremists.

Michael Kempa, an associate criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, views the truckers’ anti-vaccine fight largely as cover for a deeply authoritarian movement funded by American and global interests out to undermine the rule of law and Canada’s government. Canada Unity, one of the organizers of the trucker protest, has called for the dissolution of Canada’s Parliament.

“They’re people interested in undoing the conventional state system, and replacing the Canadian democratic model with something that is much more grassroots authoritarian and far-right conservative,” Kempa told CBC-TV in an interview. “They’re not interested in the … liberal system we have here in Canada.”

Major Canadian trucker associations have disavowed the protesters, saying the vast majority of drivers are vaccinated and are continuing to work.

Bucks County Courier Times

Guest Opinion: Trump’s comments should be a warning to us all

Dick Newbert – February 12, 2022

“They are being treated so unfairly.” — Donald Trump (Jan. 29, 2022)

As the 2022 midterm elections approach, Donald Trump continues to focus on his big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Perpetuating allegations of election fraud, Trump has taken a page from “Mein Kampf’s” rulebook: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong.

Tragically for America, despite a lack of any evidence whatsoever to support his claims and numerous audited recounts reaffirming Joe Biden’s victory, some Republicans continue to blindly believe Trump’s fiction.

Months before the election, the former president began the drumbeat the only way he could lose in 2020 was if there was election fraud. In the wake of his loss, Trump’s efforts to overturn the election have been delegitimized by all of the nation’s intelligence and cybersecurity agencies and even Attorney General Barr, reaching a unanimous conclusion there is no evidence of “systemic or broad-based fraud” that would change the result of the election.

Trump’s rhetoric culminated on Jan. 6, 2021, inflaming hundreds of fanatical supporters, urging them to march on the Capitol. What resulted was a violent assault on the Capitol with the clear intent to influence Congress’ responsible counting of the electoral college’s ballots and on a fundamental institution of our democracy.

While his supporters ran wild throughout the Capitol building, the defeated president relished the mayhem from the security of The White House; despite pleas from leading Republicans and even his daughter to stop the insurrection. Only after several hours did Trump reluctantly speak, concluding his brief remarks with a message to the rioters, “We love you. You’re very special.”

Trump has hinted he might run in 2024 and; “If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.”

Donald Trump’s willingness to pardon people whose actions were a direct threat to our democracy should scare the pants off of every American, particularly those who have taken an oath to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.

Republican Liz Cheney’s admonition must be taken seriously, “He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before. When a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted, [is] unfit for future office [and] clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”

Dick Newbert lives in Langhorne.

TIME – Business

Almost All U.S. Eggs Will Soon Be Cage-Free, Thanks to Public Pressure on Farms

Scott McFetridge, AP – February 11, 2022

This 2017 photo shows cage-free chickens on a Versova farm in Iowa. The nation’s egg producers are in the midst of a multi-billion-dollar shift to cage-free eggs that is dramatically changing the lives of millions of hens in response to new laws and demands from restaurant chains. Versova via APBY 

DES MOINES, Iowa — Without much fuss and even less public attention, the nation’s egg producers are in the midst of a multibillion-dollar shift to cage-free eggs that is dramatically changing the lives of millions of hens in response to new laws and demands from restaurant chains.

In a decade, the percentage of hens in cage-free housing has soared from 4% in 2010 to 28% in 2020, and that figure is expected to more than double to about 70% in the next four years.

The change marks one of the animal welfare movement’s biggest successes after years of battles with the food industry. The transition has cost billions of dollars for producers who initially resisted calls for more humane treatment of chickens but have since fully embraced the new reality. Pushed by voter initiatives in California and other states as well as pressure from fast food restaurant chains and major grocers, egg producers are freeing chickens from cages and letting them move throughout hen houses.

“What we producers failed to realize early on was that the people funding all the animal rights activist groups, they were our customers. And at the end of the day, we have to listen to our customers,” said Marcus Rust, the CEO of Indiana-based Rose Acre Farms, the nation’s second-largest egg producer.

Josh Balk, vice president for farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States, noted the abruptness of the about face. This is “an entire industry that at one point fought tooth and nail not to make any changes,” he said.

To a great extent, the industry concluded it didn’t have another choice.

Beginning in about 2015, McDonald’s, Burger King and other national restaurant chains as well as dozens of grocers and food manufacturers responded to pressure from animal welfare groups by announcing their commitment to cage-free eggs. That was followed by laws requiring cage-free housing in California and similar rules in at least seven other states — Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

McDonald’s, which buys about 2 billion eggs annually, said it gradually shifted to cage-free after concluding it was desired by customers. Many companies widely promoted their move to cage-free as good for their brand’s image.

Earlier, animal welfare groups, especially the Humane Society, had organized shareholder campaigns, conducted undercover investigations of chicken farms and filed federal complaints. A Gallup poll from 2015 found that nearly two-thirds of Americans thought animals deserved protection from harm and exploitation.

Animal rights groups have made allowing animals room to move a priority in their campaigns but the results have been mixed. The pork industry is fighting to block the California initiative that required more space for breeding pigs and veal calves, and a state judge recently delayed implementation of new rules.

The egg industry also initially sought national standards that would allow cages but ultimately relented, said J. T. Dean, president of Iowa-based Versova, a leading egg producer. Egg companies house about 325 million laying hens, so shifting many out of cages where they couldn’t move and into spaces where they could walk and roost was an expensive proposition, Dean said.

Besides building structures with more space, companies had to figure out how to feed birds that could move about and how to collect their eggs. More workers and more feed were also needed because hens moving around would work up more of an appetite.

The key, said Dean, was getting long-term commitments for guaranteed buyers of eggs at a higher price.

“When you start talking about needing billions of dollars, you have to try every avenue you can,” Dean said.

The exact cost of the switch on egg producers is hard to estimate, in part because some updating of buildings and equipment is done periodically anyway. The cost to people at grocery stores is clearer.

Jayson Lusk, who heads the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University, found that after a mandatory shift on Jan. 1 to cage-free in California, the price of a dozen eggs in the state jumped by 72 cents — or 103% — over the average U.S. price, although the gap could shrink as the market adapts.

At Des Moines’ Gateway Market, which specializes in organic and specialty food, shoppers said they think it’s worth paying more for eggs if it improves lives for hens.

“I feel as though I want the chicken to be happy,” said Mary Skinner, of Des Moines. “How would we feel if we were stuck in a cage?”

Gregg Fath, a Des Moines resident who enjoys eating three eggs for breakfast, said he thinks “people are learning to be more aware.”

Looking years into the future, egg company leaders said they think the demand for cheaper eggs from caged hens will remain roughly 25% or more of the market, but Balk at the Humane Society said he expects it to become a tiny percentage of overall sales.

Balk notes that hundreds of national retailers, restaurants, grocers and food manufacturers either have implemented cage-free requirements or plan to do so within a few years.

“This is the future of every state in America,” he said.

Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

EDITORIAL: A courageous stand for America’s founding principles

Anchorage Daily News, Alaska – February 12, 2022

Feb. 13—The inexplicable war on objective reality sank to a new low recently, when the Republican National Committee sought to redefine the assault on the Capitol that took place Jan. 6, 2021, as “legitimate political discourse.” The attempt at doublespeak came as the RNC overwhelmingly voted to censure two U.S. representatives from its own party, Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, for their part in helping a bipartisan panel get to the bottom of what happened that day in Washington, D.C. In a piece of political spin that boggles the mind, the RNC claimed that by helping investigate the events that day, Cheney and Kinzinger are doing work that “has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic.”

To anyone who has taken even a cursory look at the violence perpetrated that day in an effort to overturn the result of a fairly conducted election, the RNC’s statement is absurd. The irresponsible lies and violence-mongering by those seeking to subvert the will of the American people were responsible for a death and many serious injuries among rioters and police alike.

Fortunately, two members of Alaska’s Washington, D.C., delegation have had the decency to stand up to their own party in the name of the continued existence of our republic. “We must not legitimize those actions which resulted in loss of life and we must learn from that horrible event so history does not repeat itself,” wrote Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “As Americans we must acknowledge those tragic events, and we cannot allow a false narrative to be created.”

Rep. Don Young struck a similar note: “I was appalled at the violence and destruction at the Capitol on January 6th,” he wrote on Twitter. “What transpired was criminal, un-American, and cannot be considered legitimate protest.”

Those seeking to defend the RNC’s censure of Cheney and Kinzinger have flaccidly claimed that the “legitimate political discourse” mentioned in the censure resolution referred to those who protested peacefully in Washington D.C., that day. But you can read it yourself: The resolution makes no attempt to distinguish between those who only attended former President Donald Trump’s rally and those who stormed the Capitol, beating police officers, stealing from Congress members’ offices and smearing feces on the walls. More to the point, the Jan. 6 committee isn’t investigating those who abided by the law; its members are trying to determine how and whether the violent attempt at insurrection was organized. Kinzinger and Cheney should be lauded for their part in trying to unravel that issue, not declared persona non grata by their party brass.

After initially declining comment despite repeated requests by the ADN for a statement, Sen. Dan Sullivan offered a later, more muted response to the RNC’s censure resolution, condemning the violence at the Capitol and saying that violence can never be considered legitimate political discourse, but refraining from comment on the party’s action in censuring Cheney and Kinzinger and following up by saying that the important thing is to rein in the Biden administration. Sen. Sullivan should speak out more forcefully, and show the courage of Sen. Murkowski and Rep. Young.

Murkowski and Young, by virtue of their longevity and stature, have earned a reputation for periodically bucking their party on issues like this one. But chalking their stance up simply to their political capital doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s a deeper tradition in it, of doing the right thing for Alaska and its people rather than going along to get along. It might serve both of their political fortunes better to be in good with the RNC and its deep-pocketed donors, but who does it serve to undermine the foundation of American democracy?

Even in the depths of partisanship we find ourselves in, there must be some bright lines that can never be crossed — and violently overturning the results of a free and fair election must never be rebranded as legitimate discourse.

CORRECTION: An initial version of this editorial stated Sen. Dan Sullivan had not yet offered comment on the RNC’s resolution; he has done so.

Daily Beast

Trump Owes It All to McConnell’s ‘Disgraceful Dereliction of Duty’

Anthony L Fisher – February 11, 2022

One year ago, the U.S. Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump, who just a couple of weeks earlier had been the President of the United States. Three years from now, he could be that again, thanks to the Republicans who knew better but nonetheless let him off the hook.

The vote was 57-43 in favor of convicting Trump for inciting the Capitol riot, which was the citizen militia portion of Trump’s months-long attempted coup that had begun in earnest when he convinced tens of millions of Americans of the bald-faced lie that a massive, multi-state conspiracy of voter fraud had denied him re-election.

Seven Republicans crossed party lines to vote with every Democrat and independent to hold Trump accountable for his high crimes, and to bar him from ever holding office again—but the effort failed by 10 votes, short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict.

Following the verdict, quite a few senators delivered impassioned remarks on the trial, the failed coup, and the damage Trump’s Big Lie continued to inflict on basic democratic norms.

McConnell Unleashes on ‘Shameful’ Trump—Moments After Voting ‘Not Guilty’

I watched most of them (for work, of course), but only one stood out for me at the time and continues to do so today. It was an impassioned, righteously furious, and enthralling speech.

“January 6th was a disgrace. American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like.

Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president,” the senator began.

“They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth—because he was angry he’d lost an election. Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty,” the senator continued, laying out just how insane the basic facts about the impeachment really were.

Then the senator made a no–bullshit and succinct case for conviction:

“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

The senator who delivered this Beltway-meets-Braveheart monologue for the ages was a Republican. And not just any Republican—it was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the boss of the congressional GOP.

This was the speech McConnell gave explaining why he voted to acquit Trump, thus leaving the person “practically and morally responsible” for Jan. 6 unpunished, and free to serve as president again.

The TL;DR version is an interpretation (disputed by about as many who support it) which holds that the Senate has no authority to convict a private citizen. If Trump were still president, the argument goes, Mitch would have voted to convict.

Knowing McConnell’s shameless ability to go back on his word and serve the interests of the Republican Party above all else, it’s hard to believe he would have done so unless there was zero chance that he’d be the deciding vote (and probably not even then).

Trump’s acquittal provided McConnell the cover to have his words lambasting Trump and his crimes entered into the congressional record, for posterity. For history.

But in the here and now—one year later—Trump is still the de facto favorite (and there isn’t a close second) for the 2024 GOP nomination.

Worse, the Republican Party on Feb. 4 of this year censured GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their heretical insistence that Jan. 6 was a high crime that deserves a proper investigation, embodied by their participation in the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

The two members of Congress were contributing to the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” said the Republican Party.

And though the GOP quickly clarified that it was not referring to the actual Capitol rioters, but the other very fine people who believe lies the president told them (and which the rest of the GOP leadership was too cowardly to forcefully repudiate.)

The weasel-wording aside, let’s be clear about what the Republicans have done here: they legitimized belief in the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and they tacitly provided cover for those angry enough about the Big Lie to storm the Capitol.

I don’t care if you think Cheney and Kinzinger are self-interested hacks or how much you hate their politics. In this case, they’re doing the right thing.

Mitch McConnell Says He’ll Support Trump in 2024 After Blaming Him for Capitol Riot

Any Republican who would describe the baseless denial of election results and shattering the norm of “peaceful transfer of power” as “legitimate discourse” can no longer credibly claim to value American democracy more than the consolidation of political resources, and, perhaps, “owning the libs.”

Trump’s political career could have been permanently ended a year ago if McConnell and nine other Republicans had voted their consciences to convict.

They could have rebirthed their party, if only they had shown a modicum of principle, and remained steadfast against the ire of MAGA dead-enders.

Instead, the GOP is now the party of permanent Trump. They’ve codified the Big Lie, an attempted coup, and the Jan. 6 riot as part of the “legitimate political discourse.”

And it looks like McConnell has at least some regrets.

He recently took a rare swing at his own party—rebuking the RNC for its censure of Cheney and Kinzinger, and calling the Capitol riot an insurrection committed by a “mob” that used “fear and violence” to intimidate Congress after being “fed lies” by “the president and other powerful people.” But he still doesn’t support the Jan. 6 Commission, making his latest stab at bravery only half-courageous.

McConnell’s post-impeachment speech was a sermon fit for a prosecuting attorney’s closing remarks to the jury. But his words are meaningless, because he kept Trump’s political fortunes alive, and left the former president’s crimes against America unpunished.

Insider

Judge publicly refutes RNC claim that Capitol riot was ‘legitimate political discourse’ while sentencing rioter

Mia Jankowicz – February 11, 2022

• A judge took aim at the RNC’s resolution calling the Capitol riot ‘legitimate political discourse.’
• Federal judge Amy Berman Jackson refuted this during the sentencing of a Jan. 6 rioter, per ABC News.
• “It is not justified to descend on the nation’s Capitol … and disrupt the electoral process,” she said.

A federal judge rebuked the Republican National Committee (RNC) during sentencing remarks for a January 6 rioter on Thursday, saying that the 2021 assault on the Capitol was “not ‘legitimate political discourse.'”

That phrase was lifted verbatim from a Republican National Committee document released on February 4 as the party censured Republican reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger over various grievances, including their contribution to the ongoing investigation into the Capitol riot.

“Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” the document said.

D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson directly quoted that three word phrase during her sentencing of rioter Mark Leffingwell, but vehemently disagreed with it.

Per ABC News, Berman Jackson said: “It is not ‘legitimate political discourse,’ and it is not justified to descend on the nation’s Capitol at the direction of a disappointed candidate and disrupt the electoral process.”

“Cancelling out the votes of other people with a show of force is the opposite of what America stands for,” she added, ABC said.

According to court documents seen by Insider, Leffingwell, a resident of Seattle, pleaded guilty in October to charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer.

On Thursday he was sentenced to six months in prison, two years of supervised probation, and community service on his release, the Seattle Times reported. He was also fined $2,000.

The complaint said he entered the Capitol on January 6 and tried to push past a police officer. When the officer barred him, Leffingwell punched the officer twice, in the head and the chest. He also punched a second officer. He later apologized, one officer noted.

The original RNC document using the phrase “legitimate political discourse” drew widespread criticism after its release last Friday, with Democrats and some Republicans criticizing the phrasing and sentiment of the statement.

“The GOP officially supports violent criminal assaults on police, and on our democracy,” Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said.

Soon after its release, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel issued a statement saying the wording referred to people engaged in peaceful protest elsewhere, and not the violent rioters at the Capitol. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also made a similar assertion.

Other GOP figures, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Mitt Romney distanced themselves from the comment.

Romney said it “could not have been a more inappropriate message.”

Los Angeles Times

Letters to the Editor: ‘Done’ with COVID? Thank God our grandparents weren’t ‘done’ with World War II

February 11, 2022

To the editor: Thanks to Michael Hiltzik for his insightful and well-researched column on comments made by comedian and talk show host Bill Maher minimizing the current severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indeed, while we all are experiencing frustration and fatigue from pandemic-related restrictions, listening to the flippant attitude of pundits like Bari Weiss on Maher’s show doesn’t help to unify us in meeting this national and global challenge.

Perhaps Weiss should take a page from our ancestors, whom I’m sure, after years of sacrifice, might have felt “done” with World War II and other world crises. Many in past generations came together to face hardship with persistent determination and selfless courage.

In contrast, Weiss presents a disturbing caricature of millennial self-centeredness that is so often the target of Maher’s ridicule.

Susan Dunn, Valley Glen

..

To the editor: Hiltzik completely misses the point of Maher’s position on government COVID-19 measures. Maher fully understands the carnage this virus has and continues to wreak. He just points out that it’s almost entirely among the unvaccinated.

If you’re fully vaccinated and do not have the well-known risk factors, such as serious asthma or obesity, then your chances of hospitalization are very small, and your chances of dying are miniscule.

If you’re not fully vaccinated, then you’ve ignored every warning from every expert. You are no longer my responsibility. Let the rest of us go back to our lives.

I agree with Maher in that we should target our response to the disease. As a small business owner, I’m ready to accommodate employees who cannot be protected by vaccination. As a citizen, I support plenty of equipment, pay and time off for healthcare workers. But as a parent, I’m fed up with my vaccinated child not being able to fully experience school and friends.

Government should keep vaccinations free. It should keep shouting good advice. But for those of us who have taken the advice, leave us alone.

Joel Karafin, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: As a longtime fan of Maher, I’m in lock step with Hiltzik with regard to Maher’s strange reaction to the pandemic.

Normally rational and fact-based, Maher has become rather hysterical in his oversimplification and dismissal of anyone choosing to still wear masks. I tend to believe his rant is schtick rather than a disavowal of science.

Yes Mr. Maher, we’re sick to death of this COVID-19 buzz kill, but masks do prevent viral transmission. Period.

Greg Hilfman, Topanga

..

To the editor: How is “done with COVID” different from “done with traffic lights”? It has been a long time since anyone died at Wilshire and Sepulveda, so because the traffic lights have worked so well we can take them out.

Keith Price, Los Angeles

In These Times

The U.S. Dairy System Is in Crisis and Exporting More Milk to Canada Won’t Fix It

U.S. farm policies are bad for dairy farmers, cows, customers and the climate. We shouldn’t try to defeat Canada’s dairy system—we should learn from it.

Niaz Dorry – February 11, 2022

Last month, the United States won a dairy dispute with neighboring Canada under the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). A panel, convened in May 2021, agreed with the United States that Canada had been restricting the access of U.S. dairy to Canadian markets, in favor of domestic dairy producers and in violation of the agreement.

In a Jan. 4 press release, U.S. Ambassador Katherine Tai celebrated the decision: ​“This historic win will help eliminate unjustified trade restrictions on American dairy products, and will ensure that the U.S. dairy industry and its workers get the full benefit of the USMCA to market and sell U.S. products to Canadian consumers.”

While this might look like a victory for trade negotiators, however, U.S. dairy farmers and consumers have nothing to celebrate.
U.S. dairy policy has driven family-scale dairy farms out of business for decades while at the same time increasing environmental damage.

The decision fails to address the fundamental problems confronting dairy farmers in any meaningful way. On the contrary, it dismisses the positive example of Canada’s dairy supply management program that has stabilized the country’s supply of milk, provided protective subsidies to small farmers, ensured most of the dairy production is consumed domestically and offered fairer prices to farmers and consumers.

Canada’s quota system has also enabled dairy farmers to invest in more sustainable, climate-friendly farming practices. In Canada, the average dairy herd size is 96 cows, allowing more opportunities for pasture grazing and soil carbon sequestration. This combination of minimal emissions and maximum soil carbon retention represents one of the most positive versions of dairy production.

The centerpiece of the U.S. dairy crisis, on the other hand, is chronic low prices for family-scale dairies, consolidation within the market, and the subsequent overproduction of milk which hurts the economic bottom lines of farmers and consumers alike. U.S. policies pushed by dairy industry lobbyists have pressured farmers to continually increase herd size, boost production, rely on tax-payer funded subsidies and seek ever-expanding and unreliable export markets. This has driven family-scale dairy farms out of business for decades while at the same time increasing environmental damage.

In the 1990s, the United States largely dismantled its own version of a supply management system in the name of market fundamentalism. This led to rapid consolidation within the dairy sector, outpacing other sectors of our agriculture system. Today, 5% of the largest dairy farms account for 56% of all milk production. Many of these operations keep well over 10,000 cows in crowded factory-farm conditions, applying excessive levels of manure to the land and economically undercutting small and mid-scale dairies.

Displacing smaller, dispersed grazing herds of dairy cattle with huge, concentrated, herds is a net loss for soil health, carbon sequestration, sustainability, the climate, and farming communities. This new trade agreement, far from solving these problems, will only incentivize a few corporations and pseudo-cooperatives to control more of the global market.

The Biden administration and leaders in Congress have expressed their intention to promote fair competition and support rural communities. To seriously address the dairy crisis, they must stop listening to trade lobbyists and stop pretending that exporting our way out of our crisis will benefit family-scale farmers, the environment, and those who rely on dairy as a critical part of their daily food needs.

CBS News

COVID-19 truck blockade in Canada shuts down Ford plant

February 10, 2022

A blockade of the bridge between Canada and Detroit by protesters demanding an end to Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions forced the shutdown Wednesday of a Ford plant, sparking broader implications for the North American auto industry.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, stood firm against an easing of Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions in the face of mounting pressure during recent weeks by protests against the restrictions and against Trudeau himself.

The protest by people mostly in pickup trucks entered its third day at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Traffic was prevented from entering Canada, while U.S.-bound traffic was still moving.

The bridge carries 25% of all trade between the two countries, and Canadian authorities expressed increasing worry about the economic effects.

Ford said late Wednesday that parts shortages forced it to shut down its engine plant in Windsor and to run an assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, on a reduced schedule.

“This interruption on the Detroit-Windsor bridge hurts customers, auto workers, suppliers, communities and companies on both sides of the border,” Ford said in a statement. “We hope this situation is resolved quickly because it could have widespread impact on all automakers in the U.S. and Canada.”

Shortages due to the blockade also forced General Motors to cancel the second shift of the day at its midsize-SUV factory near Lansing, Michigan. Spokesman Dan Flores said it was expected to restart Thursday and no additional impact was expected for the time being.

Parts shortages

Later Wednesday, Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said the company will not be able to manufacture anything at three Canadian plants for the rest of this week due to parts shortages. A statement attributed the problem to supply chain, weather and pandemic-related challenges, but the shutdowns came just days after the blockade began Monday.

“Our teams are working diligently to minimize the impact on production,” the company said, adding that it doesn’t expect any layoffs at this time.

Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, reported normal operations, though the company had to cut shifts short the previous day at its Windsor minivan plant.

“We are watching this very closely,″ White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said earlier of the bridge blockade. “The blockade poses a risk to supply chains for the auto industry because the bridge is a key conduit for motor vehicles, components and parts, and delays risk disrupting auto production.”

Trucker vaccination mandate

A growing number of Canadian provinces have moved to lift some of their precautions as the Omicron surge levels off, but Trudeau defended the measures the federal government is responsible for, including the one that has angered many truck drivers: a rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated.

“The reality is that vaccine mandates, and the fact that Canadians stepped up to get vaccinated to almost 90%, ensured that this pandemic didn’t hit as hard here in Canada as elsewhere in the world,” Trudeau said in Parliament.

About 90% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated, and trucker associations and many big-rig operators have denounced the protests. The U.S. has the same vaccination rule for truckers entering the country, so it would make little difference if Trudeau lifted the restriction.

Protesters have also been blocking the border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, for a week and a half, with about 50 trucks remaining there Wednesday. And more than 400 trucks have paralyzed downtown Ottawa, Canada’s capital, in a protest that began late last month.

While protesters have been calling for Trudeau’s removal, most of the restrictive measures around the country have been put in place by provincial governments. Those include requirements that people show proof-of-vaccination “passports” to enter restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and sporting events.

Easing of some rules

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia announced plans this week to roll back some or all of their precautions. Alberta, Canada’s most conservative province, dropped its vaccine passport immediately and plans to get rid of mask requirements at the end of the month.

Alberta opposition leader Rachel Notley accused the province’s premier, Jason Kenney, of allowing an “illegal blockade to dictate public health measures.”

Despite Alberta’s plans to scrap its measures, the protest there continued.

“We’ve got guys here — they’ve lost everything due to these mandates, and they’re not giving up, and they’re willing to stand their ground and keep going until this is done,” said protester John Vanreeuwyk, a feedlot operator from Coaldale, Alberta.

“Until Trudeau moves,” he said, “we don’t move.”

As for the Ambassador Bridge blockade, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said police had not removed people for fear of inflaming the situation. But he added: “We’re not going to let this happen for a prolonged period of time.”

The demonstration involved 50 to 74 vehicles and about 100 protesters, police said. Some of the protesters say they are willing to die for their cause, according to the mayor.

“I’ll be brutally honest: You are trying to have a rational conversation, and not everyone on the ground is a rational actor,” Dilkens said. “Police are doing what is right by taking a moderate approach, trying to sensibly work through this situation where everyone can walk away, nobody gets hurt, and the bridge can open.”

To avoid the blockade and get into Canada, truckers in the Detroit area had to drive 70 miles north to Port Huron, Michigan, and cross the Blue Water Bridge, where there was a 4½-hour delay leaving the U.S.

“Drop the mandates”

At a news conference in Ottawa that excluded mainstream news organizations, Benjamin Dichter, one of the protest organizers, said: “I think the government and the media are drastically underestimating the resolve and patience of truckers.”

“Drop the mandates. Drop the passports,” he said.

The “freedom truck convoy” has been promoted by Fox News personalities and attracted support from many U.S. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, who called Trudeau a “far left lunatic” who has “destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates.”

Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the U.S., but Canadians have largely supported them. Canada’s COVID-19 death rate is one-third that of the U.S.

Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen said in Parliament that countries around the world are removing restrictions and noted that Canadian provinces are, too. She accused Trudeau of wanting to live in a “permanent pandemic.”

Ontario, Canada’s largest province with almost 40% of the country’s population, is sticking to what it calls a “very cautious” stance toward the pandemic, and the deputy premier said it has no plans to drop vaccine passports or mask requirements.